DBH: Hold Your Breath
by WayWardWonderer
Summary: A dangerous criminal from Hank's past holds the precinct on lockdown after shots are fired on the officers inside. Hank must find a way to keep an injured Connor alive after the android takes a bullet to protect Hank, and slowly starts to bleed to death on the floor so very far away from any possible help. (originally featured in the "Accident Prone" series)


After successfully following a much needed lead the Detroit Police Department had managed to locate one of the many members of the current underground 'red ice' ring that had been flooding the city with numerous, illegal and dangerous drugs. The suspect was an older man with a long, sordid history of violence and dozens of drug convictions already under his belt. The suspect himself was also someone that Hank had arrested back when he brought down a massive 'red ice' ring almost fifteen years prior. It was the very bust that led to Hank's impressive promotion up to Lieutenant and put his name in the precinct's history book as the youngest Lieutenant in Detroit's expansive history.

"Hey, Lieutenant!" Gavin shouted as he and Chris escorted the well known suspect into the station for questioning. The man's hands were cuffed behind his back and he sneered with a venomous hatred in his hollow eyes as he was dragged into the interrogation room. "Found an old friend of yours lurking down at the docks!"

Hank looked up from his terminal and immediately recognized the suspect and his blood began to boil at the sight of the man's prematurely aged and scarred face. Even after all the years that had passed Hank had never forgotten the cold, heartless stare in that sadistic dug dealer's eyes.

From his own terminal Connor looked at the suspect as well, and ran a facial scan to quickly upload all of the data recorded in the police record file on the man in question. The suspect's name was Jack Pillar. He had been arrested for drug possession and assault, but the judge who prosecuted him had been corrupt and dismissed the charges allowing him to go free and disappear two weeks before Hank brought down his infamous 'red ice' ring.

Keeping his back to the suspect Connor lowered his voice and addressed his partner calmly. "Hank? Are you okay?"

"No." Hank replied sternly as he watched Gavin and Chris lead Pillar away into an interrogation room. "That bastard should be rotting in Hell as we speak."

"...Do you want to observe the interrogation?"

"Fuck no!" Hank turned to look at Connor around his terminal screen as the door to the interrogation room closed behind the two officers and Pillar. "If I get him in my line of sight I'm going to pull the trigger and put a bullet between his eyes myself. And I don't need any additions to my disciplinary file..."

"Well," in an attempt to lighten the mood Connor made a rather dark joke compared to usually lighter ones. "you would save the taxpayers an expense if you did kill him."

Hank didn't react to the joke, he didn't even seem to hear Connor even though he was sitting right across from him.

Deciding it'd be best to keep quiet for a while Connor resumed reviewing the case files on his terminal, while simultaneously looking into Pillar's criminal history.

* * *

Inside the cold interrogation room Gavin had set about questioning the suspect known as Pillar while Chris sat in the adjacent observation room recording the interview, and writing down points of interest meticulously. This time Pillar wasn't going to get away with his crimes, this time the charges would stick and this time Pillar would face justice.

As per usual Gavin began to lose his cool as he drilled the suspect for answers and received none in return. Refusing to give up so easily Gavin continued with the intense interrogation, his face slowly turning red from his building stress as he spat question after question toward the suspect.

"We know you did it you, jackass. Why don't you make it easier on all of us and give up the names of your associates, huh?"

Pillar himself just glared at Gavin as he discreetly fussed with the cuffs that had restrained his arms behind his back. Slipping his wrists slowly out of the metal restraints Pillar just waited patiently for Gavin to make one little mistake.

"I'm losing my patience here. Answer the damn questions or I'll get Anderson in here to rip you apart piece by piece."

That's all it ever took for everything to fall apart, one simple mistake...

* * *

Connor's L.E.D. blinked from the blue to yellow and then back to blue as he finished researching Pillar's criminal history. The loyal deviant android felt a sickening knot form in his artificial stomach as he finished his search and now had a faint understanding of Hank's anger toward the man in the interrogation room. There was a damn good reason for Hank to want to kill Pillar, and it would be a death that no one with a heart would ever be able to hold Hank truly accountable for.

With his arms crossed tightly over his chest Hank had been staring blankly at his terminal screen ever since the door to the interrogation room had slid shut. The senior detective's mind was evidently too preoccupied with his past encounters with Pillar to concentrate on his work in the present.

Turning off his own terminal screen Connor rose from his seat and stood beside Hank's desk. "Hank, may I speak with you for just a moment, please?"

With the same blank stare in his blue eyes Hank slowly looked up from his screen and up at the deviant android who was watching him with sincere concern visible in his soulful brown irises.

"In private?" Connor tagged on pleadingly as he waited for Hank to respond. "Just for a minute."

"If you have something to say to me Connor, then go ahead and say it."

Connor was determined to get Hank away from his desk even if it was just for a few seconds, and so he asked again. "Please?"

Sighing with an annoyed huff Hank abruptly rose from his chair and motioned with his arm for Connor to accompany him to an unoccupied interview room in the opposite direction of the interrogation rooms. The small space would allow them to talk in private without worrying about anyone eavesdropping or spreading unfounded rumors.

"Alright, Connor." Hank shut the door behind him as soon as he and Connor were inside the room. "What's so damn important?"

"I know why you want to kill Pillar." It was a blunt and honest statement that made Connor's L.E.D. flash to a cautious yellow. "I understand your hatred and your desire for revenge is justifiable. And I just wanted to tell you that if you in fact felt it necessary to-"

"NO. Stop right there!" Hank held up a hand as if to physically silence the deviant android. "You can't condone revenge, Connor! Under ANY circumstances. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand, but Hank-"

"No." Hank turned his back to the deviant android and pulled the door back open with a fast jerk. "I don't want to hear it, and as far as anyone is concerned we never had this illegal, albeit brief, conversation. Got it?"

"...Got it."

With his L.E.D. still yellow Connor followed Hank outside of the room and walked a few steps beside the senior detective in an attempt to continue to speak, but the sound of sudden gunfire and shouting voices drew their attention to other matters at hand. "That was a gunshot."

Hank's blue eyes went wide and his right hand hovered over the gun holstered on his right hip. "What the hell?"

With an unceremonious return Pillar stormed through the door of the interrogation room with one arm wrapped around Gavin's throat, his other hand pressing the barrel of a gun against Gavin's left temple.

"Shit..." Gavin swore as he pulled at Pillar's choking arm vainly to try to free himself. Knowing he needed help he called out to the responding officers in the bullpen who already had their guns trained in Pillar's direction. "Fucker hid a gun on us! Don't know where-"

Pillar tightened his arm around Gavin's throat to effectively shut him up.

"DROP IT." Chris demanded as he bolted from the neighboring observation room and drew his own gun on the dangerous criminal, standing directly in front of Pillar's person. "Drop it now."

Pillar responded to the command by shooting Chris's right shoulder causing the officer to drop his gun and sink to the floor in pain. As if to emphasize his violent intent Pillar shot twice more into the open space of the main floor in two random directions. Two of the bullets lodged into the walls around Hank, but the third shot was aimed directly at Hank's chest.

Before the senior detective had time to process the sudden outburst of chaos in the bullpen a flash of blue blood filled his vision as it splashed over his shirt, and the sound of a third gunshot filled his eyes. Instinct pulled Hank down to the floor as a means of self-preservation as Connor suddenly collapsed in a limp heap in front of him.

"Shit! Connor!" Hank laid down on the ground on his stomach and stared at his injured partner laying a few feet away. The blue blood Hank had briefly seen was now soaking through the fabric of Connor's white shirt profusely, and his L.E.D. was flashing red. "Ah, fuck... "The deviant android was injured only because Connor put himself between Hank and Pillar, taking the bullet himself, as a means of protecting Hank from harm. "...Connor. Why'd you do it?"

Without any hesitation Hank pushed himself up from the ground and rushed over to where Connor had fallen. He knelt beside the deviant android's head, keeping his own head low as more gunfire continued to tear through the bullpen. Slipping his hands under Connor's arms and around his bloodied chest Hank dragged his downed partner backward into the still opened door of the interview room, and shut the door as soon as they were inside the room out of Pillar's sight.

Laying Connor down flat on his back near the middle of the floor beside the table in the center of the room Hank's mind immediately went on the defensive. Drawing his gun from the holster the courageous senior detective knelt beside the window of the interview room that peered out to the bullpen and instantly fell into an instinctive command position.

"Stay down." Hank commanded to his wounded colleague behind him. Using his fingers Hank pulled back the already drawn blinds just enough to see out through the window without being seen himself. "Pillar has Gavin as a hostage. Looks like Chris has been shot, but he got back. Damn it..."

Shifting his gaze away from the gunman over to Captain Fowler's office across the bullpen Hank watched as Captain Fowler himself ducked behind his desk out of sight with his own gun drawn in one hand, and the phone from his desk in the other as he ordered the entire building on lockdown.

"Jeffrey's on it..." Hank continued to observe through the window and was ready to raise his gun to aim at Pillar when two more armed men suddenly entered the building with their own guns drawn. Another barrage of bullet screamed through the bullpen causing the gathered officers to duck down out of sight. Hank ducked down again and turned his head away from the glass of the window to ensure no one saw him. "Three men, all armed. I got a clean shot at Pillar... But if I take him down H.R. is going to have a field day with me."

Failing to receive a response from Connor, who would've surely been observing the chaos taking place outside the room, Hank turned to his attention to the injured deviant android and felt his heart sink. Connor wasn't moving save for his chest heaving up and down slowly as he tried to take in a full breath. A massive sapphire puddle of Thirium was forming beneath the deviant android's back from where he was laying, and only continued to grow as his wound continued to bleed.

It was then Hank realized that Connor was beginning to bleed out.

"Connor?" Hank's face paled as he watched his partner already fighting for breath on the floor. Keeping his head down Hank made his way over to his injured friend to check the severity of Connor's condition. Pulling open Connor's blood stained gray jacket and white dress shirt, pulling the tie away from around Connor's neck in the process, Hank stared at the bleeding bullet hole near the right central area of Connor's upper chest. "Connor? Can you hear me?"

"...H-Hank." Connor wheezed and his eyes glazed over as his L.E.D. cycled red slowly. "I... can't..."

"You'll be okay, son." Hank put his hand down over the bleeding wound and steadily applied pressure to try to stem the already massive Thirium loss. "I'll get you to a technician, but you need to hang on for me, alright?"

Connor let out a weak breath and nodded once. "...Al-Alright."

"Run a self-diagnostic for me. How bad is it?"

Connor's red L.E.D. flashed to yellow briefly before returning to red. "...M-My right ventilation b-biocomponent... Damaged." He swallowed once as blue blood began to collect in the back of his throat. His words were beginning to carry a reverberating electronic echo as the damage to his ventilation biocomponent begun to effect his voice modulator as well. "Th-Thirium pump... compromised. Thirium loss s-substantial; volume down t-to seventy-two perfect. Imminent sh-shutdown in twenty-nine minutes, forty-two seconds."

"Oh shit..." Instinctively Hank applied more pressure to the wound as if he could somehow keep Connor from slipping into shutdown if he just held on tight enough. If his Thirium pump; his heart, failed then Connor would die within seconds. "Hang on son, I'll get you out of here. I promise."

Coughing up Thirium in a violent gasp Hank rolled Connor slightly onto his left side to let the blue blood pool out of his mouth and onto the floor. The coughing fit mercifully passed but not before leaving a second sapphire puddle on the floor in its wake. Rolling the deviant android onto his back again Hank swore he could feel Connor's heart thundering in his blood soaked chest like a freight train right under his palm.

Several stray bullets broke through the glass of the window causing shards to rain down into the room. Hank threw himself over Connor to protect the already injured deviant android from the falling glass, and put his own hand over the back of his own head to keep the shards from cutting him as well.

"Fuck!" Hank swore as the bullets finally stopped flying. Rocking back on his knees Hank grabbed onto Connor's hand and placed it over the wound as he gave Connor a reassuring nod before he crept back over to the window to see what was happening. "Shit... They're trying to use Gavin as a hostage AND a human shield. I hate the prick but we can't just let him get killed."

Pulling his phone from his pocket Hank dialed Captain Fowler's office to connect with his commanding officer just across the large floor.

"...H-Hank?"

"Just hang tight, Connor. I'm calling for help." The line barely had the chance to ring once before Captain Fowler answered. "Jeffrey, what the fuck's happening out there? Connor's been shot and we're stuck in interview room 'A'. He needs a technician in less than twenty minutes or he'll shutdown!"

Connor coughed a little as he pathetically spoke up. "...Twenty-five minutes, and-"

"Shut up, Connor, I'm trying to fuckin' save you." Hank swore as he turned to look at the deviant android then returned his gaze to the window so he could make eye contact with his Captain across the way. "He's lost a lot of blood already and we can't afford to wait."

Impatiently Hank listened to his Captain while also keeping his eye on the hostage situation outside. Chris had managed to get away from three gunmen to the relative safety behind a desk with his hand clamped over his bleeding shoulder, and Tina was watching his back as she kept her own gun trained on the three gunmen in the distance.

"Fine! Just find a way..." Hank ended the call and scrolled through his contacts to connect with Joel as he knelt beside Connor again. The call was answered almost immediately "Joel! Yeah, it's- Listen, Connor's been shot; bullet penetrated the upper right center of his chest. He's going to shutdown, what do I have to do to save him?"

Connor's soulful brown eyes began to close as he let out a gasping breath and began to choke on the blood collecting in his throat once more.

Hank quickly rolled Connor onto his side for a few seconds until the choking fit passed then rolled him onto his back again. Pressing his hand down on Connor's chest over his heart, precariously close to the still bleeding wound, Hank counted Connor's pulse as Joel requested.

"He's at one hundred-thirty." Hank's hand moved over to the upper right side of Connor's chest and pressed down, then he did the same for the left. "It doesn't feel like he can breathe very well. Right side seems worse than the left."

Connor weakly updated Hank on his condition. "...Th-Thirum levels down to sixty-six percent."

"And he's still losing a lot of blood." Listening to Joel for a few more seconds Hank's brow suddenly furrowed with a mixture of confusion and surprise. "Wait, you can do that? Okay, yeah, give me a second." Placing his phone against Connor's red L.E.D. Hank issued instructions to his downed partner. "Connor, access your self-diagnostic program and sync it up with my phone."

Connor's eyes blinked slowly, but his L.E.D. managed to shift from red to yellow for only a few seconds before returning to red. In that time a display appeared on Hank's phone showing four key aspects to Connor's vital signs: Thirium pump activity/heart rate, Thirium volume percentage, current ventilation rate and core temperature.

"Shit, it worked!" Hank shouted as he put the phone back to his ear. "I can- Yeah, that's what it says on my screen, too."

' _Where are you exactly_?' Joel asked while keeping his cool over the line.

"We're in the first interview room, right in the middle of all this bullshit."

' _Alright, sit tight. I'll see what I can do_.'

"Yeah, monitor his condition from your end and I'll keep-"

Another shot filled the air as another bullet embedded itself in the concrete of the wall below the broken window. Voices were calling out commands and shouting resonated loudly as the officers standing off with the three gunmen proceeded to open fire and try to take down the trio of criminals without losing Gavin or anyone else in the process.

Dropping his phone next to Connor's shoulder Hank took his position by the window and peered through the fractured glass at the carnage taking place outside. "Damn it..." Hank slunk down against the wall and as he looked back over to Connor. "The fuckers aren't going to go down easily."

Suddenly Connor took in a sucking gasp for air and his eyes went wide with panic as his back arched in distress. Wheezing in shallow breaths blue blood began to ooze from the corners of Connor's mouth and trail out of his nose in a sickly pale blue foam.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Hank scrambled back to Connor and put his hand down over Connor's chest to try to hold him down on the floor without hurting him. Looking down at the screen of his phone Hank watched as Connor's heart rate began to spike and his Thirium volume dropped down to sixty-two percent. The Thirium bled from Connor's chest, mouth and nose; blue tinted foam was collecting in the back of Connor's mouth and throat from his choked off breaths. "Hold on, son, I got you."

Hank pressed his ear down against Connor's chest and listened to the sound of his ventilation biocomponents attempting to draw in full breaths, but a whistling sound identified a failure in Connor's internal air intake line, and an accompanying sickening sloshing noise indicated a significant amount of blood had collected in Connor's ventilation system.

Connor was now drowning in his own blood.

"Stay calm..." Lifting his head up from Connor's chest Hank slipped his hand under Connor's neck as his tilted Connor's head back. Opening the deviant android's mouth as wide as possible Hank shook his head somberly. "Sorry about this." Placing his two forefingers down inside Connor's mouth Hank scooped out the collecting foam from Connor's throat before rolling Connor onto his left side and delivering a firm but painless blow to the center of Connor's back between his shoulders to help clear out his airway. "Breathe!"

Connor coughed loudly as his ventilation biocomponent was cleared of the choking mass. As he took in a deep breath more Thirium leaked from the bullet wound in his chest, while speckles of blue blood dotted his already blue stained lips. The failure in the air intake line was still disturbingly audible even without Hank having to press his ear against Connor's chest.

"You're okay..." Hank soothed confidently as he rolled Connor onto his back again. While keeping one hand under Connor's head he wiped the blue Thirium stain on his fingertips off against his dark coat. "I'll get you out of here."

Connor swallowed once and nodded. The fear in his usually confident eyes was unmistakable as Connor tried to focus his self-healing program on the damage to his biocomponents, while remaining as calm as possible. His shutdown clock had dropped down to eight minutes as he continued to lose Thirium and struggled to breathe well enough to prevent his core temperature from rising.

A call on Hank's phone forcibly drew the senior detective's attention from the deviant android and back to the chaos taking place in the precinct. "Jeffrey, what the hell's happening out there?"

' _S.W.A.T. is on their way Hank, how're you holding up_?' Captain Fowler's voice was calm and in control over the line despite the Captain being incredibly tense as he eyed the three gunmen from his office sharply.

"Not good... Connor's in rough shape."

' _Don't worry, we'll get you out of there_.'

"It's not me I'm worried about, it's him!"

' _We have a negotiator on the outside working with Pillar now. By all accounts he's not going to surrender peacefully, OR alive. I don't want to see this end in death, but we can't let him or his associates escape_.'

"Jeffrey, from my point of view I have a clean shot. I can take out Pillar without harming Gavin and end this bullshit."

' _You're a great shot Hank, but there's no way you can get all three men down without Gavin being put at risk_!'

"Yeah, I know. But if you think I should take the shot then just give me the word."

' _Hopefully it doesn't come down to that_.'

"That's up to Pillar now, isn't it?"

' _Hank, I think help's coming your way.'_ Through his office window Captain Fowler caught sight of an android technician, an intern working Joel in the dispensary, slowly approaching the interview room with a blue colored android first aid kit tucked under his arm. _'The door's going to open but it's going to be a friend, alright? Do. Not. Shoot._ '

"I'm not trigger-happy, Jeffery." Hank snarked as the door to the interview room creaked open slightly. Turning his head he watched as the helpful android very carefully slipped the kit down on the floor and pushed it through the opened door. "I got it. Tell whoever that was to get back before they get shot."

Hank ended the call as he grabbed onto the kit and placed it on the floor next to Connor's body. Opening the kit Hank stared at the pieces of equipment stored inside the blue colored plastic box with utter confusion. Rather than the usual pieces of first aid supplies that normally accommodated such an android kit there were items that seemed designed for more advanced procedures than routine emergency first aid out in the field.

"What the hell is all this crap?"

A long hollow plastic tube was wrapped up in sterile plastic next to a metal cylindrical apparatus in the center of the case. Next to it was a bottle of pure blue Thirium and a bottle of the bizarre orange colored incrassation compound that Hank had only recently learned of when Connor's arm had been injured a few weeks back.

As if sensing the question hanging in the air Hank's phone rang again and Joel reestablished a connection with the two somewhat isolated detectives.

' _Hank, listen to me_.' Joel sounded unusually stern compared to his typical laidback demeanor as he didn't even wait for Hank to speak. ' _Connor only has six minutes left before he shuts down. You can save him but you have to do everything I say and listen very carefully, and for the love of all that is sane do NOT try to argue_.'

"Shit..." Hank swore again as he set the phone on the floor and pressed speaker as he stared at Connor's vital signs still on display. Heart rate up to one-hundred and forty and his Thirium volume was down to sixty-one percent. "Alright Joel, what do I have to do?"

' _You see the incrassation compound in the kit_?'

"Just call it the 'orange stuff'." Hank grumbled as he picked up the correct bottle and unscrewed the cap. "Got it."

' _Pour it over the bullet wound in Connor's chest, that should stop the bleeding and keep his airline from leaking too severely_.'

"Right." Giving Connor a sympathetic glance Hank wiped away as much of the lost Thirium from Connor's chest with his hand before he poured the orange liquid directly into the wound. "Hang on, kid."

Connor flinched and let out a stifled pained moan as the orange chemical stung at his injury and entered deep inside the wound itself.

"Sorry, Connor. I didn't want to to do it." Hank apologized sincerely as he watched the deviant android enduring another bout of pain. "It's done."

' _Good_ ,' Joel continued his instructions from over the line as he watched Connor's vital signs from his own phone up in the precinct dispensary. ' _now you see the tube inside of the plastic bag_? _Pick it up and open the bag_.'

Tossing aside the now empty compound bottle Hank picked up the plastic bag and tore it open with his fingers. Holding the tube in his hands he just stared at the object as if he had been handed a grenade.

"Now what?"

' _Listen to me VERY carefully_.' The insistence in Joel's voice was less than comforting. ' _At one end of the tube you'll see a blue line and the other end a rectangular plastic guard. You need to slip the blue end of the tube down Connor's throat to open up his air intake line so he can breathe again_. _It's like intubating a human_.'

"What the fuck did you just say?!"

' _Don't argue_!' Joel nearly shouted. ' _His core temperature is going to start rising and you have no way to cool him down if he overheats_.'

"Right, right... okay."

' _Next to the tube inside the kit there should be a metal cylinder. Pick it up and press the small button at the top, a small metal flank should release from the side. It looks like a thin and partially curved, blunt knife_.'

Hank picked up the requested tool and pressed the button at the top. Sure enough a small flank released from the side. "Okay... Now what?"

' _Tilt Connor's head back and keep his mouth opened as wide as possible. Then use the flank to push down on his tongue to open his throat wide enough to slip the tube down_.'

"...Is that going to hurt him?"

' _Only a little, but it'll let him breathe and stabilize his system to keep him from shutting down._ '

"He won't be able to talk."

' _Four minutes_!'

Connor's breathing became more rapid but remained shallow as his damaged ventilation biocomponent and failing air intake line struggled to circulate the required air for him to properly cool his core. "...Hank..." Connor gasped in panic as tears began to well in his eyes. "H-Hank... I'm... scared."

"Don't be, Connor!" Hank's hand grabbed onto Connor's arm and squeezed in a reassuring manner. "I'm right here with you, I won't let you shutdown, alright?"

Nodding once Connor closed his eyes and swallowed the blue blood again. "I... trust you."

' _Hank, you have to do this._ ' Joel's voice called out desperately over the line. ' _You're the only one who can_!'

"Fuck!" Hank saw Connor's vital signs on his phone starting to become more erratic as the deviant android struggled to breathe and his heart was pounding in his chest as his body fought to heal itself in spite of the massive Thirium loss. "Close your eyes Connor, this isn't going to be fun for either of us..."

Connor's opened long enough to watch as Hank moved from his side to kneel just above his head. Once Hank put his hand on his lower jaw Connor shut his eyes tight enough to cause the tears he had been restraining to finally fall and run down his face from the corners of his eyes.

"I'm working on a car, not my partner..." Hank held his breath as he put the metal tool in Connor's mouth and pushed it down against the deviant android's tongue. "Car. Car. Car." Repeating the mantra seemed to calm Hank enough to keep his hands from shaking as he performed the unpleasant, but necessary task. "It needs to be done... I'm not hurting him, I'm saving him."

Connor fought the urge to spit the metal object out knowing that it was there to help him and not hurt him. The feeling of being smothered and drowning was becoming almost too intense for the deviant android to withstand, and his heart beat even faster.

' _Three minutes_.'

"Shut up, Joel! I'm doing it..." Carefully Hank slipped the blue end of the tube into Connor's mouth between his teeth and snaked it down slowly alongside the metal tool with a steady pace to get it down Connor's throat.

Connor reflexively swallowed as the tube was inserted down his throat, at the same time his hands turned in fists at his sides while he resisted his every instinct to pull the tube out of his mouth and lash out at the person responsible for his discomfort. As the plastic guard at the end of the tube reached Connor's lips Hank retracted the metal tool and set it aside.

"It's in!"

There was a heavy pause for a moment before Joel responded from over the line. ' _Perfect placement, good work Hank_.'

"Is that it?"

' _Shutdown has stopped for now, but he still needs Thirium. He's at fifty-eight percent and dropping. The tube is serving as a temporary replacement for his damaged air intake line, and it can allow you to pour the replacement Thirium down his throat without accidentally choking him in the process_.'

More gunfire suddenly erupted from the precinct outside the interview room causing Hank to look up at the window, but he didn't move. At the moment the need to stay by his partner was more prominent than dealing with a trio of lunatics inside a building full of police officers who were already handling the chaos outside the window.

Connor's eyes snapped open and focused on the broken window in fear as bullets broke through the already damaged glass and embedded in the concrete wall behind Hank.

"It'll be fine." Grabbing onto the plastic bottle of Thirium from the kit Hank opened the lid and slipped his hand under Connor's head to lift the deviant android up a little from the ground, and to let Connor rest against his knees. "After I take care of you, I'll take care of them."

Unable to verbally respond Connor just blinked once to confirm he had understood Hank's comment.

Tipping the bottle down against the end of the tube inserted down Connor's throat Hank poured the much needed Thirium into the tube to restore the blood that Connor had already lost. Connor flinched a little but didn't move or try to resist the procedure as he knew what Hank was doing was to save his life.

"Joel, I need to deal with the gunmen." Hank shouted toward his phone resting on the floor nearby. "Monitor Connor for me and if there's any change you better letting me fuckin' know A.S.A.P., you hear me?"

' _Don't worry, I'm monitoring him very closely. His Thirium is currently up to sixty-five percent_.' Joel confirmed in a much more relaxed sounding tone. ' _You just focus on the idiots with the guns_.'

"That's what I always do." As the last of the Thirium poured from the bottle down the tube Hank tossed it aside and gently lowered Connor down from his knee to rest flat on the floor again. Grabbing onto Connor's hand Hank firmly planted the deviant android's palm down against the bullet wound in his chest. "Keep the pressure until I get back."

Obediently Connor kept his hand firmly in place over the lightly bleeding injury and began breathing easier now that the tube was in place down his throat.

Hank returned to the bullet shattered glass of the window and knelt down to line up his shot from where he and Connor had been taking shelter. Pillar was still holding Gavin as his hostage while Pillar's men stood by his side with their own guns drawn and aimed at the police officers surrounding them. The hostage negotiator was standing outside the precinct and using a phone to communicate with the three gunmen who clearly had no interest in any deals whatsoever.

Glancing over to Captain Fowler's office Hank watched as his Captain gave him a nod of approval before aiming his own gun at the three gunmen as well. Knowing Hank was already locked onto Pillar himself Captain Fowler aimed at the gunman closest to his location through the glass of his office wall, and remained somewhat concealed behind his desk.

"As long as we take out the gunmen together we can save Gavin." Hank muttered to himself as he breathed slowly and kept his hands as still as possible around the grip of his gun. "Just need a third shot..."

Connor was beginning to lose consciousness on the floor. The compound that had been applied to the injury had stemmed the bleeding significantly, but the damage to his ventilation biocomponent was still in desperate need of repair. Thirium continued to leak internally into the compromised biocomponent at a steady rate causing discomfort and difficulty with Connor's ability to breathe and keep his core temperature cool.

Unable to speak or move all Connor could do was lay in the puddle of his own blood and wait for Hank to come back to his side to check on his condition.

* * *

Stranded in the middle of the chaos with a bullet lodged in his shoulder Chris applied pressure to his own wound while Tina kept at his side and kept her gun drawn on the trio. As he glanced about cautiously Chris noticed that Captain Fowler was aiming at the suspects through his office and that Captain Fowler kept looking toward the broken glass of the interview room across the way.

Chris followed Captain Fowler's gaze and caught a faint glimpse of Hank inside the window taking aim as well. Quietly Chris addressed Tina without giving away the plan or distracting the trio in the process. "Tina, can you get a clean shot at the big guy on the left?"

The fearless officer nodded her head subtly to answer Chris.

"Captain Fowler and Lieutenant Anderson have a shot from their positions." Chris stared at Captain Fowler and waited for his Captain to glance his way. "Get ready to fire, when I say the word."

Tina whispered her reply confidently. "Ready."

Captain Fowler's eyes met with Chris for a moment and the officer motioned his head toward Tina at his side, then motioned with his hand that she had a shot at the gunman to the immediate left.

Ready to fire Captain Fowler nodded and glanced over at Hank to relay the information.

From where he knelt Hank watched as Captain Fowler informed him of the plan with silent hand gestures, then told Hank to stand down as he took the phone from his desk and made contact with the negotiator outside the precinct.

Hank kept his eyes trained on the armed trio as he addressed Connor who was still laying helpless a few feet away behind him. "Looks like this is could all be coming to a nasty conclusion... It's all up to Pillar how it ends now."

Connor took in a shuddering breath and let out a stifled gasp that was a mixture of a choke and cough. The tube was allowing Connor to breathe, but the Thirium collecting in his ventilation biocomponent was beginning to flood his chest cavity and compress surrounding biocomponents, steadily disabling them one by one. A small trickle of blue blood was beginning to rise up in the tube as he bled internally and couldn't do a thing to stop it.

As the tense standoff continued outside the room and in the center of the precinct came to a head Captain Fowler finished speaking to the negotiator over the phone and made his own call on the situation covertly to his officers a few yards away. Signalling to Hank to standby and wait for his final signal Captain Fowler communicated the same instructions to Chris and Tina through the office window.

"This is it, Connor..." Hank stated as he held his aim steady, his blue eyes focused on the cold hollow eyes on Pillar in the distance. "It'll be over soon."

From up in the dispensary Joel had noticed a sudden change in Connor's vitals through his contact over Hank's phone, but couldn't reach Hank to tell him what to do. Connor's condition began to rapidly deteriorate, and the deviant android was helpless to say anything to Hank or even to Joel over the line.

* * *

Outside the interview room and from within in his private office Captain Fowler held out his left hand for Hank and Chris to see, and using his fingers started counting down from three. As he reached the count of 'one' Captain Fowler stood up from his desk and squeezed the trigger of his gun. The bullet found its target in the upper shoulder and chest of the gunman to Pillar's immediate right. The gunman was disarmed as he fell to the floor in a matter of seconds.

Tina followed suit as soon as Chris told her and immediately took her shot as she kept her position on the ground, and took down the second gunman. The bullet struck the gunman directly in the center of his chest causing him to collapse to the ground in a bloody heap beside Pillar and drop his weapon.

Hank readily squeezed the trigger of his own gun and struck Pillar in the middle of his forehead, right between the eyes. The bullet seemed to cut through the air in slow motion and it was like the gunshot was as silent as death itself to Hank's ears. Seeing the bullet pierce Pillar's skull removed the lingering hatred in his heart, but in its stead was now a hollow, empty feeling.

Pillar collapsed to the ground and blood pooled beneath his head. Hank let out the breath he had been holding and stood up from the ground as he stared at the body in the distance. As Pillar's lifeless body fell to the floor with a heavy 'thud' Gavin eagerly ducked down and moved away from the trio of successfully disarmed and subdued gunmen behind him.

It was all over.

"FUCK!" Gavin swore as he dove to the floor, his entire body trembling from adrenaline and fear. "SHIT! THAT WAS TOO DAMN CLOSE!"

Hank readily holstered his gun and returned to Connor on the floor to check on his wounded partner. "Told you I'd put a bullet between his eyes." He tried to joke as he checked on his partner's condition, but the deviant android was unresponsive and seemingly unconscious. "Connor?"

' _He's going into insipid shock, his Thirium level is down to fifty percent and still dropping_.' Joel explained from over the line as he heard Hank's voice speaking to Connor again. ' _There's already emergency technicians waiting outside, let them do what they have to do to stabilize him_.'

"Shit, Connor?!" Hank put his hand down atop Connor's hand to try to apply more pressure to the wound only to discover that Connor's damaged ventilation biocomponent had finally given out entirely, and he had stopped breathing altogether. Putting his other hand beneath Connor's head he supported his partner in his arm and waited with bated breath for the emergency technicians to arrive. "Hang on for me, son! You'll be okay."

Blue blood trailed from the corners of Connor's mouth around the tube and onto Hank's sleeve. The weakening display of Connor's vitals on his phone made Hank feel suddenly cold and sick.

The door to the interview room opened as Captain Fowler led the technicians to the source of their emergency call. Two technicians with a stretcher in tow quickly assessed Connor's condition, using both the phone on the floor already displaying his vitals as well as their own equipment contained in the large military grade satchels slung over their shoulders.

The male technician pulled a suction pump from his bag and placed the end of the pump in Connor's mouth around the tube to drain the blue blood collecting in his throat. Simultaneously the female technician pulled a pale blue tinted plastic pump from her own bag and attached it to the end of the inserted air intake tube to manually pump air into his ventilation biocomponents to cool his rising core temperature.

"Remove his jacket." The female technician ordered as she kept Connor breathing with one hand and pulled a large pouch of Thirium from her bag with the other hand. "We need to get him cooled off."

Hank and Captain Fowler quickly worked together to slip the bloodied jacket and the equally bloody shirt from Connor's arms, and watched the male technician expertly assess Connor's vitals from the phone's display.

"Thirium levels are critical." The male technician stated firmly as he wrapped a Thirium pressure cuff around Connor's left bicep. "We need to get him to the facility, now. We can't afford to wait."

Without waiting for any prompts from the technicians Hank began lifting Connor's body up from the floor under the deviant android's shoulders while Captain Fowler grabbed onto Connor's legs. The two detectives gingerly placed Connor down on the stretcher while the technicians continued to work in tandem to keep Connor's system from shutting down.

Attaching an android cardiac monitor to Connor's chest with a single sensor pad over the center of his chest, directly over his Thirium pump, gave the technicians a clear view of the deviant android's faltering heart rhythm. Hank picked up his phone from the floor and looked at Connor's vitals still on display; his heart rate perfectly matching the display on the monitor, while the stretcher was wheeled out of the room.

As Connor was wheeled away from where Hank was still standing the connection to the phone began to weaken until it was finally severed.

"Hank." Captain Fowler put his hand on Hank's shoulder and pushed him forward. "Go with him. We know it was a good shooting, alright? I won't let H.R. try to fuck with you. I gave the order, you just obeyed."

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Hank pocketed the phone and took his eyes from the now blank screen. Handing Captain Fowler his gun from his holster Hank didn't say another word as he followed right after the gurney as Connor was wheeled outside of the precinct.

The interior of the bullpen was still absolute chaos as the bodies of the three gunmen were isolated from the rest of the room with thin white sheets draped over their bloody corpses. Chris was sitting on a desk while two paramedics checked his shoulder and wrapped up the bloodied injury to prepare for transport, while another paramedic was checking over Gavin nearby.

Bullet holes had damaged the walls with large gaping imperfections in the concrete and paint, large portions of glass had been broken from the window and now littered the floor in a thin layer of crystalline debris. The transparent wall of Captain Fowler's office had a gaping hole in the glass courtesy of his own bullet, causing a spiderweb like crack to blossom around the hole itself.

The outside of the precinct was just as chaotic as S.W.A.T. personnel (too late to the scene) converged on the building. An ambulance was parked outside waiting for Chris and Gavin, while a second android unique ambulance was parked next to it waiting for Connor.

Hank jumped into the back of the ambulance right alongside Connor and refused to move from his partner's side. "Look, I know protocol and I know I should be up front," Hank preemptively argued with the technicians. "but that bullet that's in his chest right now was meant for me. I'm not going anywhere."

Unwilling to try to reason with Hank the two technicians just slammed the rear doors shut and slapped the side of the ambulance twice to signal the android driver to return to the facility. Loud sirens blared and bright flashing red and blue lights illuminated the streets as the emergency vehicle sped off to the nearest Android Emergency Care Facility with its single patient in tow.

Connor's vitals continued to drop as the technicians fought to raise his Thirium volume and keep his core from overheating. The deviant android was disturbingly still and completely unresponsive to the voices speaking around him, and oblivious to the hands pressing down against his wounded chest. The attached cardiac monitor began to screech as the effects of the incrassation compound had begun to wear off, and the heavy bleeding continued. More and more Thirium collected in Connor's right ventilation biocomponent and it was becoming harder for the technician to manually supply air to the deviant android's steadily overheating system.

"His Thirium pump is beginning to falter into an arrhythmia." The male technician announced as he used an audioscope to listen to Connor's chest. "Total right ventilation biocomponent failure. Left compromised."

Hank spoke up over the sound of the screeching monitor as he watched Connor's red colored L.E.D. pulsing slower and slower. "Connor? We're losing you, son. Just hang on a little longer. You're almost to a facility, just hang on."

The ambulance stopped outside the facility with a controlled speed. As the rear doors of the ambulance were pulled open from the outside Hank jumped up and the two technicians helped lower the stretcher out of the back to the awaiting care of the two android technicians who had met the ambulance in the parking lot. With four technicians now hovering protectively over Connor's dying body Hank felt the sickening knot in his stomach tighten to its limit.

"Patient in critical condition." The female technician told the other two newly responding technicians. "Thirium pump is struggling to beat on its own."

Wandering slowly into the facility after the hastily wheeled away gurney Hank was met by the receptionist who tried to tell him everything that was happening to Connor, and of everything that was still going to happen to Connor under their care; but Hank didn't hear a word she said. Sitting in a hard plastic chair in the waiting room Hank just stared blankly at the linoleum floor as the horrible memory of the day played out in his mind, and the haunting nightmare of the night Hank lost his previous partner relentlessly overwhelmed his every thought and emotion.

"I got him, Barb. He's dead now. I'm sorry I couldn't stop him sooner." Staring at his hands Hank expected to see a red smear of blood to appear like it always seemed to do after every shooting he had to take that resulted in death, but it didn't do it. Not this time. "...It's finally all over."

* * *

Six long hours passed by since Connor was rushed into the emergency repair wing of the facility. Once the procedure was mercifully over Hank was shown back to the recovery room where Connor was laying perfectly still with the tube still down his throat, but he was breathing on his own again. Two other androids were in the recovery room along with him, but they were surprisingly in worse shape; one had been burned up in a house fire and the other had been pushed in front a truck by an anti-android bigot.

Abby, the technician that Hank and Connor had met (unfortunately) more than once, was checking on the other two androids while Hank joined his partner at the far side of the room.

Sitting beside Connor's bed Hank just stared at the deviant android and looked at the freshly repaired wound in his chest. The right ventilation biocomponent had to be replaced entirely, while his Thirium pump needed minor repair as it had begun to strain itself from attempting to boost his self-healing program while his Thirium levels were critically low.

The deviant android's L.E.D. was pulsing at a normal rate in yellow, which was a vast improvement over the red. Only the faintest of a scar was visibly on Connor's artificial skin courtesy of the lingering imperfection in his plastimetal frame beneath. By all outward appearance it's like he had never been shot.

"I'm glad you pulled through, son. I don't think I can take losing another partner." Hank admitted as Connor's L.E.D. blinked rapidly and cycled into blue. Connor's soulful brown eyes opened slowly, and his head lolled to the side to look Hank in the face. "Hey kid, welcome back. You saved my life back there... Thanks."

A slight grin formed on Connor's face around the end of the tube still resting in his mouth. Reaching a hand up to the tube Connor began to pull on it to try and remove it, only to have Hank reach his own hand out and stopped him.

"Don't do that! Let the technician remove it."

Abby had overheard Hank's comment and rushed over to the bedside to handle the situation. "Stop pulling on it, you know better." Abby lightly scolded as she used her hand to straightened Connor's neck and tilted his head back. As she took hold of the end of the tube she nodded at Connor. "Cough a few times and I can remove the tube."

Connor obeyed and coughed as the tube was finally pulled from his throat by the technician. A blue stain of Thirium had coated the tube both inside and out, but Connor was no longer bleeding internally.

"Better?" She asked as Connor put his hand over his mouth to stifle his coughing.

"...-Y-Yes." Connor replied hoarsely as he looked up at her. "Thank you."

Pressing the bell of her audioscope to Connor's chest Abby ordered her stubborn patient to test his new ventilation biocomponent. "Deep breath."

Connor did as he was instructed and was able to breathe without any difficulty."

"No biocomponent rejection and a stable Thirium pressure. I'll leave you two alone and process his paperwork." Abby put her hand on Hank's shoulder briefly as she passed by. "He'll be out of here within the hour, but he still needs to rest at home."

"Yeah, thanks." Hank sounded somewhat upset despite the good news. Remaining quiet he just stared off into space beyond Connor, and beyond the entire world.

"...Hank?" Connor sat upright on the bed carefully as his chest still hurt, and swung his legs over the edge as he steadied himself with both arms. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, kid. Just... thinking." Putting his hand on Connor's shoulder he tried to push him to lay back down on the table. "Rest a little longer."

"Hank..." Connor refused to lay down, and was hesitant at first, but decided it was time to ask the hard question. "are you thinking about what happened to... Barbara?"

Hank nodded a little. "Yeah." Crossing his arms defensively over his chest Hank rubbed thoughtfully at his bearded chin. "You read the report, you know that Pillar was the prime suspect in her murder. We could never directly connect him to the shooting, but the caliber of the bullet matched a gun he had been known to favor. He was also seen in the vicinity at the time of the shooting, and had motivation to go after her."

"Because you had him arrested." Connor tagged on despondently.

"Yeah. She died because of _me_."

"No, Hank. She died because a corrupt judge let Pillar go, and he shot her in the back like a coward. There's nothing you could've done to prevent it."

"Pillar shot you, too." Hank needlessly argued. "This time it _was_ because of me."

"Hank, I pushed you out of the way and accidentally stepped into the line of fire in the process. What happened to me wasn't your fault, either. I was mine, I should've been faster."

"Maybe I should've listened to you earlier. Maybe if I had watched the interrogation I would've been able to take Pillar down sooner without anyone else getting hurt. Chris, Gavin... you."

"Chris?"

"Bullet to the shoulder, but he was stable when we left." Hank looked absolutely regretful as he sat in deep contemplation. "He lucked out. It could've killed him, and his wife would've been left alone to raise their son. He even got the jump on Gavin and threatened to shoot him. You were right Connor, I should've taken Pillar out when I had the chance."

"No. Hank, I was wrong." Connor stated firmly as his voice returned to full strength. "It was wrong of me to suggest you take revenge on Pillar. Killing him wouldn't bring back Barbara, and all it would've done is hurt your career. It was a foolish thing to say. I'm sorry I ever brought it up."

"Well, maybe it was fate. Connor, I took the shot that took Pillar down. And I felt absolutely nothing when he hit the floor. No anger, no relief, no sense of justice... It was just absolutely nothing."

"Maybe that's because in the end that's all Pillar was worth; nothing."

"Maybe." Hank stood up from his seat and slipped off his dark heavy coat. Passing it over to Connor to take Hank let out a weary sigh and put his hands to his hips. "Even though it was a good shooting I'm going to be benched for at least a week. And as much as I hate to admit it, right now I need a drink."

"No one would blame you, Hank. Today was... bad." Gratefully Connor put Hank's coat on over his arms and shoulders, and zipped it up to cover his bare chest. "It was very bad. For all of us, but for you it was the worst."

"Actually... This is only in the running for the worst day of my life."

 _ **-The End  
**_


End file.
